The week in pictures: December 1–7, 2012
In the past seven days, Curiosity's first analysis of martian soil revealed a complex chemistry within the soil, NASA probes orbiting Earth's Moon generated the highest-resolution gravity field map of any celestial body, astronomers discovered and "weighed" an infant solar system,
and
more.
Published: Friday, December 7, 2012
GRAIL creates most accurate Moon gravity map
Data from the twin spacecraft show that our satellite’s gravity field is
unlike that of any terrestrial planet in the solar system.
Learn more »X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/A. Prestwich, et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI
Searching for the best black hole recipe
Scientists are tackling this problem by studying the number of black holes in galaxies with different compositions.
Learn more »Mars rover fully analyzes first soil samples
Water and sulfur and chlorine-containing substances showed up in samples
Curiosity delivered to an analytical laboratory inside the rover.
Learn more »ESA–C. Carreau/C. Casey (University of Hawaii); COSMOS field: ESA/Herschel/SPIRE/HerMES Key Programme; Hubble images: NASA/ESA
Herschel and Keck take census of the invisible universe
Observations reveal extraordinarily high star-formation rates across the history of the universe.
Learn more »Illustration by ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/M. Kornmesser (ESO)
ALMA sizes up grains of cosmic dust around failed star
The discovery of millimeter-sized dust grains around a brown dwarf
suggests that this disk is more similar to the ones around young stars
than previously thought.
Learn more »Observations identify rare new kind of galaxy
Nicknamed “green bean galaxies” because of their unusual appearance,
these galaxies glow in intense light emitted from the surroundings of
monster black holes that are now switching off.
Learn more »Illustration by Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF
Astronomers discover and "weigh" infant solar system
The star currently has about one-fifth the mass of the Sun, but
according to scientists, it will likely eventually match the Sun’s mass.
Learn more »NASA/ESA/S. Baum and C. O’Dea (RIT)/R. Perley and W. Cotton (NRAO/AUI/NSF)/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
A radio-optical view of the galaxy Hercules A
The galaxy is one of the brightest extragalactic radio sources in the entire sky.
Learn more »Illustration by NASA/JPL-Caltech/The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Voyager I cruising on a "magnetic highway"
Scientists believe this is the final region the spacecraft has to cross before reaching interstellar space.
Learn more »NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Opportunity finishes walkabout on Mars crater rim
The rover has been investigating a site where observations from orbiting Mars spacecraft detected traces of clay minerals.
Learn more »Have venusian volcanoes been caught in the act?
Venus’ atmosphere contains more than a million times as much sulfur
dioxide as Earth’s, where almost all of the toxic gas is generated by
volcanic activity.
Learn more »